Theo Live

Theo Live turns the passive meeting notetaker into an interactive voice agent that participates in your Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams calls. Say "Hey Theo" during any meeting and ask questions, run searches, send emails, or create projects — all hands-free, right in the call.

How It Works

  1. Open the Meetings page and click Record Meeting.
  2. Toggle Live Theo on in the start modal.
  3. Paste your meeting URL and click Start Recording.
  4. The bot joins with a neon-green Theo avatar. Participants hear a greeting: "Hi everyone — Theo is taking notes and can answer questions when you say 'Hey Theo'."
  5. Say "Hey Theo" followed by your question. Theo listens, responds audibly, and goes back to sleep after ~6 seconds of silence.
When Live Theo is off, the bot still records and produces AI-powered meeting notes, summaries, and action items — exactly like before. Live mode is purely additive.

Wake Word & Mute Behavior

Theo Live is muted by default— it doesn't respond to every utterance. It only activates when it hears the wake phrase.

Wake phrase

"Hey Theo" (case-insensitive). Theo starts listening for your question.

Auto-mute

After ~6 seconds of silence or saying "thanks Theo", the agent goes back to sleep.

What You Can Ask

Theo Live has access to the same tools as the browser voice mode and text chat, plus two meeting-specific actions (meeting chat and email).

Web Search

"Hey Theo, find the best coffee shop near Union Square."

Meeting Chat

"Hey Theo, send a message to the meeting saying I'll share the deck after the call."

Email Participant

"Hey Theo, send an email to john@acme.com setting up a follow-up meeting next week."

Create Projects

"Hey Theo, create notes from what we just discussed."

Save to Memory

"Hey Theo, remember that the client prefers weekly check-ins."

Deep Research

"Hey Theo, research the latest GDPR compliance changes."

Supported Platforms

Google Meet
Zoom
Microsoft Teams
Webex
Slack Huddles(passive only)
GoTo Meeting(passive only)

Slack Huddles and GoTo Meeting don't support two-way audio bots. Theo will still join as a passive notetaker on these platforms.

Reliability & Fallback

Live mode depends on the OpenAI Realtime service. Theo handles transient failures so a single hiccup never breaks your meeting:

  • Model fallback chain. Theo tries a tiered list of Realtime models on every session and advances automatically when one is unavailable on your account.
  • Auto-retry.If the session can't be established immediately, the bot retries with backoff (1s → 3s → 7s) before giving up.
  • Graceful fallback to passive notetaker.If Live truly can't start (account misconfiguration, OpenAI outage, etc.), the bot automatically reverts to passive mode so the meeting is still recorded and summarised — you'll see a banner explaining the downgrade.
  • Liveness pill.The bot's camera tile shows a small status pill in the corner: Connecting…, Online, Reconnecting, or Passive notetaker. Participants can see at a glance whether Theo is interactive.
  • Online greeting. When Theo connects, he speaks a short “Theo is online and listening” so participants know the agent is ready before the first wake word.

Safety & Privacy

Consent banner: When the bot joins, it sends a chat message notifying all participants that Theo is recording and can respond to voice commands.

Blocked write actions: Sensitive actions — sending emails to participants, deleting projects, deleting folders — are blocked during live meetings. Theo will say so out loud and you can do them from chat after the call. An in-meeting approval flow is on the roadmap but not shipped yet.

Opt-in only: Live mode must be enabled in your user preferences before the toggle appears in the meeting start modal.

Mid-meeting kill switch: The meeting owner can disable Live Theo mid-call, reverting the bot to passive notetaker mode instantly.

Credits & Cost

Live Theo uses premium infrastructure for two-way voice interaction. This costs more than the passive notetaker.

  • AI credits are consumed per tool call (same rates as voice mode).
  • OpenAI Realtime audio is billed per minute of active conversation (~$0.30/min combined I/O).
  • The meeting recording, transcript, and AI summary are included at no extra cost beyond the standard meeting credits.

How to Enable

  1. Go to Settings → Preferences → Meetings.
  2. Turn on Theo Live.
  3. The "Live Theo" toggle will now appear in the Record Meeting modal.

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